Daily Hab-it: Advanced statistics after 37 games

Sometimes, advanced statistics show you things that have become plainly obvious, and this is one of those times.

The most striking thing to me in this third look at the Canadiens through the advanced statistics microscope shows that Tomas Plekanec has reverted back to last year's role of No. 1 shutdown centre, taking over from Jeff Halpern.

That's in addition to his role as No. 1 offensive centre, No. 1 power play centre and No. 1 shorthanded centre.

Plekanec's quality of competition numbers had him 16th in the first rankings, seventh in the second rankings, and now have him ranked first on the team.

This might explain why he's had trouble producing of late, with three goals and four assists in the 13 games since the last rankings came out.

Another interesting item of note here is the overall offensive zone starts for the team shows 11 players at better than 50 per cent, up from seven players in the last rankings and nine in the first report. Despite the obvious advantage in field position this gives the Canadiens, it has not resulted in an increase in goals and had also coincided with the club's worst defensive stretch of the season.

One statistical category has been removed and that's penalties drawn/taken, largely because behindthenet.ca has changed the way it calculates this metric that makes it impossible to use as a comparable.

For a thorough explanation on each of the three statistical categories shown here, go to the first advanced statistics post. The numbers in brackets represent the player's ranking and statistic in the last report.